Trials of a Philadelphia Witch

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Yes, you heard me right; my name is Rin, sorry to disappoint
you if you were expecting something more witch, like: Amethyst Dream or
Moonheart. I do have a working magical name but that’s something I share with
my deities or when I’m doing ritual and prayer. The name Rin, though not my
actual birth name is more of my “re-birth name” given to me by someone special.
One day I’m sure my public magical name will come to me but for now you can
refer to me as Rin or… The Philadelphia Witch!

The reason the blog has been created and its name is “Trials
of a Philadelphia Witch” is because living in Philly and being a witch is extremely
hard these days. You wouldn’t think so considering all of our rich history and being
such a major city so close to New York, but that assessment would be wrong. Philadelphia
is a place where I honestly believe the pagan community comes to die, kind of
like how elephants go to die in their own special graveyards. It’s a sad truth
that there isn’t an active pagan/heathen community here. Why you ask? Well let
me give you a few reasons why:

When I was the ages between 15-16 there was a magical shop
here in Philadelphia, PA called “Morgan’s Cauldron” This place was located on
South Street and supposedly catered to pagan paths of all types. I’m not sure
how long the store was open but I do know I visited once and never went back.
It was proven that the shop owner and the atmosphere of the place just turned
people away. Normally you would think that a shop catering to the pagan community
would be warm, loving, and tying to enrich and educate the pagan’s around them.
Instead this shop filled people with unhappiness until eventually it closed up.
It’s a sad truth that Philly hasn’t been able to hold any pagan themed shops
since, and actually the only shops that have “some” pagan supplies are “Harry’s
Occult Shop” which isn’t open for long (It closes before 6pm which isn’t very
useful when your just getting off work around that time) and “Garland and
Letters” Which is actually a bookstore with tons of different item’s and stones
but not an actual pagan store. These
venues are great to have, I shop at “Garland and Letters” whenever I can, but
both shops are very pricey.

Then there are the Pagan Pride days. Every major city has a
Pagan Pride day which is geared towards having a food or clothing drive for
people in need and teaching the community about pagan awareness. Both of these
things are great and much needed but Philly I am sad to say hasn’t had one in 3
years now. This is due to people not wanting to get involved in anything
outside of their own broom closets. Maybe that’s unfair and yes life is majorly
hard especially with there not being much in the way of jobs, but come on! We
are meant to help one another and pull each other up! Not ignore each other as
we drown in our own silent despair!

Lastly (for this first post anyway) a few years ago me and
my friends tired of the stagnate state of the pagan community decided to try to
start a magazine created by and for pagans. It was to create the awareness of
what was going on in the community and try to form a bridge between other
spiritual paths. We worked hard, gathering information, had weekly meetings, even
saved up what little money we could to make the magazine cost very little and
still be effective. We even tried to make a pagan pride day so that we could
not only launch the magazine but also have the chance to give back with a food
drive. We were all pretty young and decided to ask some older pagan’s that we
knew for help and even had postings for people to become involved on craigslist
and facebook to generate attention to what we’re doing. It was there our
spirits became crushed. Only one person responded to the ad and no one; that’s right
NO ONE wanted to help us. We found out that in the beginning the pagan
community (in Philly) would become excited about a potential project, and
rarely they may even help, but in the middle and the end you are left trying to
pull all the weight alone. It was then with heavy hearts we decided we couldn’t
continue the project until we found a way to wake this place up.

Those are only some examples. Of why the Philadelphia Pagan Community is dead
or at least in a very deep, deep, sleep.

The purpose of this blog is to cause awareness and create
the foundation for the work I will be doing in the future to gather and inform
open minded individuals into what’s going on in Philly and what we need to do.
It is my extreme belief that if nothing is done we will all suffer greatly for
it, and I know from experience the intense longing I have felt to have a community
that understands me and one I can feel at home in. There are plenty of great books
and blogs (and not so great) out there that will teach you about spell work,
rituals, stones, crystals, deities and magical supplies. This isn’t one of
them. I’m here to help guide our community to working together. If I do post
about any of the above things it will be for a very, very good reason and
mostly relating to helping the community out and connecting us together. So I’m
sorry if that’s not what you were looking for but consider it this way: Isn’t
it worth it to stick around so you know what’s going on around you? After all
you stumbled upon this blog for a reason right?

I will tell you all that this journey won’t be easy, but it
will indeed be worth it. So won’t you take a chance walk this road with me?